Monday of the Holy Spirit

Today it’s Penecost Monday/ Whit Monday but it can also be called Monday of the Holy Spirit. To me, it seems like Pentecost/ Whitsunday was celebrated more here in Sweden when I was a kid growing up than nowadays. This day was even a red day back then but now it stopped being that for over a decade ago. Christians celebrate the Holy Spirit during Pentecost/ Whitsunday, it’s in memory of when the Holy Spirit came down upon the apostles. It’s also the birthday of the church. The Dove is one of the symbols for the Holy Spirit. Other symbols are the wind and the fire. The church in the pictures of this blog post is called Örträsk Church, located in southeast Lapland, and it was built in 1849.

How manyactually follow what Jesus and God taught?

When I think of religious holidays like Monday of the Holy Spirit and other Christian holidays, I wonder how many of the people who call themselves religious and who go to church actually follow what Jesus and God taught…

Jesus showed compassion for all living beings and was kind and loving. I haven’t met so many people with those qualities among people who celebrate Christian holidays. For instance, I have seen a lot of garbage thrown in a pond where there are a lot of birds. You don’t show compassion for all living beings when you do that because the garbage can kill animals.

And I know about people in a Church choir who bullied another woman because they didn’t want her there. I know this woman who got bullied, she’s a little bit older than me and very kind and helpful, but still, she wasn’t allowed to be with those people, a choir in a small village. She got sad. My mother consoled her. You don’t show compassion when you bully others.

And in the Bible, it’s written; “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb-bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat.” Genesis 1:29

I wonder how many of the people who go to church are vegetarians or vegans….I’m thinking that if you take part in something that you should do your very best to follow the leaders and what they have taught, their mottoes. If you don’t you’re a hypocrite because you can’t say one thing and do another. It’s like St. Francis of Assisi said:

“It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”